Getting Started with Windows Forms Form (SfForm)

27 Apr 20213 minutes to read

Assembly Deployment

Refer control dependencies section to get the list of assemblies or NuGet package needs to be added as reference to use the control in any application.

Converting Standard Form into SfForm

The default form can be changed into SfForm by the following steps:

1) Create a new Windows Forms Application in Visual Studio and refer to the Syncfusion.Core.WinForms assembly.

2) Include the following namespace to the directives list.

C#

using Syncfusion.WinForms.Controls;

3) Change the base class of your form from System.Windows.Forms.Form to SfForm.

C#

public partial class Form1 : SfForm
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
}

Title Bar Customization

By default, the SfForm loads with the default appearance, that can be customized by using the TitleBarStyleInfo property. It contains all the settings for the appearance of the form.

C#

//Sets the back color and fore color of the title bar.
this.Style.TitleBar.BackColor = Color.Black;
this.Style.TitleBar.ForeColor = Color.White;

//Sets the fore color of the title bar buttons
this.Style.TitleBar.CloseButtonForeColor = Color.White;
this.Style.TitleBar.MinimizeButtonForeColor = Color.White;
this.Style.TitleBar.MaximizeButtonForeColor = Color.White;

//Sets the hover state back color of the title bar buttons
this.Style.TitleBar.CloseButtonHoverBackColor = Color.DarkGray;
this.Style.TitleBar.MinimizeButtonHoverBackColor = Color.DarkGray;
this.Style.TitleBar.MaximizeButtonHoverBackColor = Color.DarkGray;

//Sets the pressed state back color of the title bar buttons
this.Style.TitleBar.CloseButtonPressedBackColor = Color.Gray;
this.Style.TitleBar.MaximizeButtonPressedBackColor = Color.Gray;
this.Style.TitleBar.MinimizeButtonPressedBackColor = Color.Gray;

Border Customization

The borders of the form can be customized by using the Style.Border and Style.InactiveBorder properties.

C#

this.Style.Border = new Pen(Color.Black, 5);
this.Style.InactiveBorder = new Pen(Color.Gray, 5);

Loading User Control to the Title Bar

You can load any user control to the title bar of the SfForm instead of the title bar text by using the TitleBarTextControl property.

C#

FlowLayoutPanel searchPanel = new FlowLayoutPanel();
Label searchingLabel = new Label();
searchingLabel.Text = "Searching";
TextBox searchBox = new TextBox();
searchPanel.Controls.Add(searchingLabel);
searchPanel.Controls.Add(searchBox);

//Loads the searchPanel to the title bar.
this.TitleBarTextControl = searchPanel;